


The Princess and the Dragon

by bluebellsandcocklesshells



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gender Fluid!Cas, Homophobic Language, Middle School AU, Other, implied attempt at sexual assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 05:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6739342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebellsandcocklesshells/pseuds/bluebellsandcocklesshells





	The Princess and the Dragon

Dean didn’t really know the kid that well.  He had a weird ass name and didn’t get jokes that everybody understood and never did anything but study and get straight A’s.  He already had a lot going against him, so choosing to wear dresses to school when to everyone else he was “clearly” a boy certainly didn’t help his social status.

Dean couldn’t understand the fuss.  So the kid liked to wear dresses.  He was eleven years old—he wasn’t old enough to know who he really was as a person yet, so who cared if he wanted to try different things out?  Dean was expected to play baseball and do wrestling and date cheerleaders, but he joined the chess club at the beginning of eighth grade because he liked strategizing.  It helped when he played paintball with his family.  Dad, Sam, and he always demolished their competition.

The main problem was that their town was so small that there was only one school.  Elementary, middle, and high school were all jumbled together.  Sure the youngest kids were mostly sequestered away in their own wing, but kids like Castiel who were only in sixth grade had to walk the halls with ninth and tenth graders, and eighth graders like Dean had to share space with juniors and seniors.  It was a problem when it came to bullying.  (The teachers thought it was a problem when it came to dating as well, but Dean didn’t think it was weird that at fourteen he’d gone on a few dates with a seventeen year old).

Castiel wasn’t exactly scrawny, in fact he was kind of, sort of chubby, but he definitely gave off a vibe of being small and helpless.  Probably because he hunched in on himself.  And wore dresses that made him look soft and pretty.  Yeah, Castiel was pretty.  That probably didn’t help his “you’re supposed to be a boy” problem.  So, he got bumped into a lot and shoved into lockers and his books knocked out of his hands.  Dean felt bad for him, and he felt guilty for not doing anything, but it wasn’t like he had the social clout to survive standing up for the school freak.

Until one day it just went too far.  A group of kids in Dean’s grade had the kid pinned in against some lockers.  A couple of teachers at the end of the hallway were pretending like they didn’t see what was happening.  The bullies were trying to lift Castiel’s dress up and grope between his legs.  The kid looked terrified, his blue eyes filled with tears.  Dean threw his books on the floor and stomped over to them.  He shoved two of them and they stumbled to the side, surprised to see him.

“Back off, you pile of ball hair.”

One of the kids scampered off right away.  One of them straightened and scowled at Dean.

“Really?  You’re going to defend this freak?  I guess you like that kind of thing then, huh?  Fags always like the kinky shit.  She-males and shit.”

“Even if I do it’s still closer to a pussy than you’ve ever been.”

The other kid laughed and then looked away when his fellow asshole shot him a death glare.

“Just leave him alone,” Dean said.  “It actually takes less effort to walk by him than to push him into a locker.”

“It’s energy well spent if it teaches freaks like him not to be a fucking freak.”

Dean glanced at Castiel.  “Have you learned your lesson?”

For a moment, hurt flashed in the kid’s eyes, and then he tilted his head as he examined Dean for a moment.  The barest hint of a smile pulled at his lips and he shook his head.  Dean faced the bullies again.

“Looks like it’s not energy well spent then.  I guess you better find something better to do like jerking it in the bathroom.”

Other kids who had been pretending not to be paying attention snickered.  The main bully flushed red, and then he stalked off, leaving his friend to scramble after him.  Dean shook his head, frowning.

“Dicks.”

“Tell me about it,” Castiel said in a surprisingly deep voice for a sixth grader.  Guess his balls had dropped whether he wanted them to or not.

“You okay?”

Castiel shrugged.

“I—uh, I’m sorry I called you a he.  Or, do you go by he?  Or she?”

Castiel looked a little stunned.  “No one’s ever asked me that before.”

“Oh.  Well.  Whatever, you know?”

Castiel nodded his head.  “I—I guess I don’t mind being called he.  It’s not so much that I feel like a girl, as I just don’t…feel like a boy.  At least, not like what a boy is ‘supposed’ to feel like.  Does that make sense?  Probably not to you.  You’re definitely everything society thinks a boy should be.”

“Am I?  I’m not too pretty?  My lips aren’t too full and girly?”

Castiel made an apologetic face.  “Sorry.  I shouldn’t make assumptions.”

Dean shrugged.  “It’s alright.  I certainly have it better than most kids.”

They stood awkwardly for a moment and then mercifully the bell rang.  They began to shuffle in the same direction.

“Hey, so,” Dean began, “do those guys bother you every day?”

“Yeah.  But only between lunch and fifth period.  I think we don’t really cross paths otherwise.”

“Well, it looks like we’re heading in the same direction, so how about I walk you from lunch to fifth period every day?”

Castiel tilted his head and squinted his eyes.  “Why would you do that?”

“Because.  I like helping people.  If you don’t need or want my help, you can say no.”

“No!  I mean, yes.  I mean, no to saying no.  I would be…very happy to have your help.”

“Sure thing.  I’m Dean by the way.”

Castiel held his books tighter to his chest, the faintest pink tinge painting his cheeks.  “I know.  I’m Castiel.”

Dean grinned.  “I know.”

“Oh, this is me,” Castiel indicated his classroom door.

“Perfect.  I’m just two doors down on the other side of the hall.  So, I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

Castiel nodded.  He stood by the door in a cute white dress with little cherry clusters all over it, looking like his nineteenth century beau had just dropped him off back home after an afternoon of courting.  Dean chuckled to himself.

“I like your dress, Cas.”  He gave him a wink and walked away.

Over the next several weeks, Dean escorted Castiel from lunch to fifth period and they talked about books and TV shows and their obnoxious brothers and how Mr. Turner was a total hardass.  Occasionally Dean had to do a little posturing and scare off any would be bullies.  He also had to deal with rumors flying that he and Cas were dating.  It didn’t bother him because Cas was not quite sure about his gender, but because the kid was only eleven.  That was just wrong.

One day he got distracted in the cafeteria by Aaron and Lisa.  He wasn’t sure if they were having a flirting contest with him because they really wanted to win him, or if they just wanted to beat each other.  It was rather bold on Aaron’s part to make assumptions about Dean since he hadn’t come out at school, but he supposed his defense of Cas probably had everyone convinced that he wasn’t strictly about the ladies.  To be honest, Dean wasn’t sure about that himself, but if Aaron asked him out…geez he might say yes.

The bell rang to end lunch and he walked with Lisa and Aaron, laughing over their debate of whether Dean’s eyes were spring green or sea green, and they exited by the west exit instead of the east.  It wasn’t until he waved goodbye and had to hurry in the other direction so that he would make it to class on time that he realized Cas always waited for him at the east exit.  He cursed softly under his breath and jogged through the clogged halls that were rapidly thinning as people entered their classrooms.

On the hallway with their classrooms he saw that Castiel had almost made it, but his arm was being held firmly in the grasp of Walt Grady—the jerk who had assaulted him a few weeks back.  He dragged Castiel across the hall, other kids saw but ignored it, and forced him into the boys room.  Dean took off like a shot.  He got yelled at by a teacher to stop running.   _That_ was what the teachers cared about?  Not some kid getting attacked in the bathroom?

Dean pushed through the doors and saw that Walt had shoved Castiel down onto his knees.

“You wanna be a girl?  I’ll treat you like one,” Walt growled as he started to unzip his fly.

Dean crossed the room, put a hand on his shoulder, spun him around, and punched him as hard as he could.  Walt flailed back and crashed into the sinks and then hit the ground.  Dean winced and shook out his stinging hand.  Damn, that had hurt.

“Dude, there is more wrong with you than I thought if this is the way you think girls should be treated.”

“Fuck you, Winchester, you sick faggy fu—”

Dean kicked him in the face.  He whimpered and curled into a ball on the floor.  Dean walked over to Castiel and helped him to his feet.  He put an arm around his shoulders.

“Are you okay?  Did he hurt you?”

Cas shook his head.  Dean looked back at Walt.  His mouth was bloody.

“You touch him again, and you’ll lose more than teeth, okay?”

He didn’t wait for a response; he just took Castiel by the hand and pulled him out of the bathroom.  He dropped him off at class before going to his own.  They were both late, and Dean couldn’t help but think that Castiel’s teacher was probably giving him a harder time about it than Dean’s did.  People were such assholes.

For the next few days everything was calm.  Dean vowed never to go out through the wrong cafeteria exit ever again, and the rumors that went around now at least had everyone leaving Castiel alone during the whole school day.

About a week after the bathroom incident, Dean was putting his books in his locker after school.  He was on his way to a chess club meeting and decided he would study for biology tomorrow.  He turned away from his locker and found himself surrounded by four upperclassmen.  They were all slightly taller than him, and definitely bigger.  Behind them Walt Grady glared at him from the safety of the hall corner.

“My little brother had to go to the dentist and have the tooth you kicked out replaced,” the biggest one said.

Dean recognized him now: Roy Grady.  He was a senior and on the lacrosse team.  That was where all the biggest and most aggressive kids went since their school had no football team.

Dean squared his shoulders, ready for a fight.

“Well, your little brother had it coming.”

With an unspoken signal, all four of them fell on him.  He was punched in the gut and the face.  He got hit from so many sides he didn’t even know where to flail an arm out to try to defend himself, so he curled up into a ball and tried to protect his head.  He received a particularly hard kick to his kidneys, and for the first time felt fear that these guys weren’t just aiming for a little payback, but might actually try to seriously hurt him.

Dean curled tighter, wincing with every blow rained upon him.  Then he heard a shouting voice sounding righteously indignant.

“Leave him alone!”

The beating stopped, there was the sound of a scuffle, and then Dean hesitantly peeked out from between his arms.

There was Cas, wearing a blue dress with a white flower pattern, standing in between Dean and his attackers.  His attackers who were easily twice the size of Castiel.  Cas had his arms and legs spread wide, blocking the other kids from getting to Dean.  Or at least, implying that they were going to have to through him first.  Dean could only see the side of his face, but he looked dangerously fierce.

The look on Roy’s face was priceless.  He was ticked off, sure, but he was so confounded by Castiel’s dichotomy that he looked a little amused as well.  He let out a small laugh and looked back his brother.

“You happy, Walt?  I beat the guy up.”  He looked back at Dean.  “Leave my little brother alone.”

“Tell your dickhead of a little brother to leave Cas alone.”

Roy sighed, and then looked back at Walt.  “Leave the kid alone, alright?”

“But he’s fucking weird!”

“You’re fucking weird, you twat.  It’s high school.  Everyone’s weird.”

With that, Roy nodded to his friends and they walked down the hallway, turned a corner, and disappeared.  Walt slinked after them.  Castiel turned to look at Dean.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, m’fine.”  Dean smirked.  “From this angle, I can totally see your underpants.”

Castiel’s face contorted to offended outrage.  The last thing Dean remembered seeing was the sole of Cas’ foot.

When Dean blinked to consciousness, he recognized the nurses’ office at his school.  He was lying on a cot and Castiel was sitting in a chair nearby, looking miserable.

“Hey, Cas.”

“Dean!”  Castiel leapt out of the chair and sat beside Dean on the cot.  “I am so sorry!  I didn’t mean to!  I just…reacted.  And stupidly.  It wasn’t even a big deal.”

“Nah,” Dean shrugged.  “It was a dick thing to say.”

Castiel’s anxiety softened into a smile.  “It was a Dean thing to say,” he said with a chuckle.

“You saying ‘Dean’ is a synonym for ‘dick?’”

“No, of course not.”

“Hey, did you, uh, get in trouble?”

Castiel looked down.  “No.  I blamed it on the people who beat you up.  I said I didn’t recognize any of them.  I figured I’d leave it to you if you wanted to report them.”

Dean shook his head, and then winced.  “Ow.  I don’t think I will.  I think Roy and I reached an understanding.”

“I hope so.”

Dean shrugged.  “Even if he and I didn’t, you and I got each other’s backs, right?”

Cas’ lips parted and he stared at Dean for a moment.  Then he pulled himself together.  “Exactly.  We have each other.”  Castiel fidgeted with the hem of his dress.  “I know you think I’m too young for you, so I won’t do anything stupid like ask you out or something, but you should know: I probably will in a couple of years.”

Dean smiled.  “I guess I have something to look forward to.”

Castiel chewed on his lower lip, whether he was nervous or trying to hide a smile, Dean wasn’t sure.  Then the kid leaned over and placed an awkward but sweet kiss on his forehead.

“Sorry about your face.”

“S’okay.”

“Ah, Mr. Winchester, I’m glad you’re more lucid now.”

Castiel sat back quickly as the nurse entered the room.

“I called your mother; she’s on her way to pick you up.”

“Okay.”

“Now, you want to tell me who did this to you?”

Dean shrugged his shoulders.

The nurse sighed and rolled her eyes.  “Of course not.  Mr. Novak, I think it’s time you headed home.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The nurse stayed by the door, obviously waiting for him to leave.  He repressed a sigh and gave Dean a look that the nurse couldn’t see.  Dean sniggered quietly.  Castiel stood up and whispered softly.

“I hope your head feels better.  Sorry, again.”  He paused.  “You didn’t really see anything, did you?”

Dean smiled and shook his head.  “Nah.”

Castiel smiled, relieved.  “Okay.  Bye, Dean.”

“Bye, Cas.  See you tomorrow, honey bee.”

The nurse made a confused face at the endearment, but Castiel’s face went red as he clearly realized that Dean had, in fact, seen the bumble bees buzzing around on his underwear.


End file.
